


You Give Me Hope

by reedpayne



Series: Coldatom Week 2016 [1]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, ColdAtom Week 2016, Day 1, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, coldatom, i forget, leonard is still a criminal, or is it billionaire, ray is still a genius millionaire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-26
Updated: 2016-04-26
Packaged: 2018-06-04 14:56:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6663283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reedpayne/pseuds/reedpayne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The thing is, most of the world's population have found their soulmate by the time they graduate college.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Give Me Hope

**Author's Note:**

> coldatom week day one prompt: soulmate AU
> 
> happy coldatom week, everybody! this is kind of late (technically it's already tuesday here), but at least i got it finished, finally! not gonna lie, it was thrown together a little hastily, so forgive any mistakes i may have made and feel free to point them out to me so i can get them fixed right away
> 
> shout out to the best friend sydnie (spectrasydniescope on ao3, [raypalmersnart](http://raypalmersnart.tumblr.com/) on tumblr) for helping me out

The thing is, most of the world's population have found their soulmate by the time they graduate college. Experts on the subject have run a countless number of tests over the last decade that provide plenty of statistics, all of which one Ray Palmer has read over and over again in the past few years of his life. He's 26 years old, runs his very own, highly successful tech company, has encountered thousands upon thousands of people in his line of work, and has yet to happen across his soulmate.

He knows he hasn't because the small tattoo on the outer part of his left hand that he's had since birth remains stubbornly half finished.

As marks go, his is on the small side, only falling somewhere between the size of a nickel and a quarter. For many years of his life he was unsure of what exactly the mark was supposed to be, until he reached middle school and realized one day during science class, his absolute favorite, that the symbol was half of an atom.

He'd been ecstatic, of course, at the discovery - even at such a young age, it'd been evident to him that he was meant to go into the field of science, and the discovery of his soulmate tattoo being half of an atom only helped to further cement the idea in his head.

Through four years of undergrad, then another two of grad school, Ray woke up each and every day with a smile on his face and hope in his heart. Each day, he dressed his best, never once slacking off on his appearance, in hope that it'd be the day where he finally met his soulmate and his tattoo would finally complete itself. His parents, who were soulmates, had met in college, as had both sets of his grandparents, and his great-grandparents before them. It seemed evident that he would find his soulmate in college - it was a family tradition.

Only, he didn't. Graduation came and went, and still his mark stayed half finished, and his heart stayed broken.

Ray didn't give up hope, of course. Though he knew that the majority of the statistics he'd read were against him, he was positive that one day he'd meet his soulmate, the other half to complete his whole.

Which brings us to today.

It's half past midnight, and Ray is just now putting away his things to leave the office for the night. He's been working late every single night for the past month or more, working on his latest and possibly greatest project, a new kind of tech that could potentially one day be used to shrink items - or people - down to a subatomic size. It's not an easy thing to do, but between him and the other scientists and engineers that he surrounds himself with every single day, he's sure that one day soon they'll have a breakthrough.

He slips into his jacket, then grabs his keys and messenger bag before quietly leaving his top level office, politely waving goodbye and calling a goodnight to the janitors and night security as he slips inside the elevator and presses the button for the garage floor. The ride down is silent aside from the light elevator music, which is quiet enough that Ray can ignore it completely as he fiddles with his phone.

His car is one of the very limited amount of cars still left in the garage and he sees it the moment the doors open. He starts towards it, only half paying attention to his surroundings as he digs around in his bag for his keys. He's preoccupied enough that he doesn't see there's another person in the garage until they've got him pressed up against the nearest concrete wall with what feels like the barrel of a gun pressed against the back of his head.

"Make one move and I won't hesitate to pull the trigger," a smooth voice says close to his ear, causing a small shiver of fear to run down Ray's spine involuntarily. He swallows thickly and keeps as still as possible, trying his best not to give this person any reason at all to pull the trigger. "Now drop the bag and don't make any sudden movements or you'll regret it."

Ray is quick to comply, carefully letting his messenger bag slip off of his shoulder and onto the ground with a dull thump. He's not too worried about what's inside; his wallet only contains several hundred dollars, nothing of much importance to him. Besides his wallet, there are only a few files about different projects that he intended on looking through once arriving home, but there are extra copies back up in his office, so he's not entirely worried about those, either. As always, his work laptop remains locked up in his desk drawer, so really, this thief isn't getting away with very much.

Not that the thief seems to care, apparently, as Ray can hear him or her stepping forward to snatch the bag up. Ray jolts a little when he feels hands on him, but stays as still as possibly while the person searches his pockets for anything else. The only thing there is Ray's phone, which the thief takes and apparently slips into his own pocket, from the soft rustling Ray can hear. Again, Ray isn't worried - his phone has nothing important on it and can easily be replaced without any problems.

"Turn around, slowly, and keeps your hands where I can see them."

Raising his hands, Ray does as he's told, slowly turning around to face the thief, who he can now tell is a male. He's dressed in all black and his face is covered in some sort of black ski mask, showing nothing but a pair of bright blue-green eyes shining through.

It's when Ray meets the man's gaze that the burning sensation starts. It's mild at first, more like a mild itching, but as the seconds progress, it feels like the outer part of his left hand is on fire. Forgetting all about the situation he's in, Ray turns his attention to his hand, twisting it around so he can get a better glimpse of it. He watches in complete awe as multiple black lines start to appear, connecting to his soulmate mark and slowly filling in the missing spaces.

Having expected it to be the other half of his atom, Ray is surprised to see the lines have filled in in a way that appears to be half of a snowflake. He brings it a little closer to his face, trying to get a better look at it, and his eyes aren't deceiving him - it really is half of a snowflake, connecting flawlessly with his existing half of an atom.

Ray only checks back in with reality when he hears a low chuckle coming from in front of him. He drops his arms and takes a half step back, staring at the thief standing before him, who is starting down at his own hand, where a mark that matches Ray's perfectly has just formed.

"Well, isn't this just peachy," the man drawls. He reaches up to pull off the ski mask and, for the first time in his life, Ray sees the face of his soulmate. The man is older than him, though not by very much, with short, dark hair and creamy white skin. He glances back up at Ray, tilting his head to the side the slightest bit and narrowing his eyes. "I suppose I should apologize for trying to rob you, but apologies aren't really my thing, so suck it up and deal with it. The name's Snart, Leonard Snart."

"Um, I'm Raymond," Ray manages to get it, speaking for the first time since the whole fiasco had started. "Raymond Palmer. Most people call me Ray, but you can call me whatever you'd like." He pauses for a moment, licking his dry lips and swallowing thickly. "So. Um. We're soulmates, then?"

"It would appear so, Raymond," is Leonard's reply, and Ray can't help but think about how good his name sounds coming from his soulmate's mouth. He's so caught up in it he almost misses Leonard's next words. "Perhaps we should get to know each other over dinner tomorrow night?"

"Oh, uh, sure! Yeah. That sounds great. Just let me, uh," he pauses, going to pull his phone out of his pocket, then remembers that it's no longer there. "You sort of have my phone, so. You can put your number in it, if you'd like."

Leonard does just that, typing away quickly, then handing over the phone as well as the messenger bag, though he does stop to extract all the cash from Ray's wallet first.

"I'm gonna have to keep this. Don't take it personal, my sister's got to eat somehow," he explains, a steely expression on his face. He stares at Ray for a moment without making a noise before carefully pulling his ski mask back on, adjusting it so once again, all Ray can see of his face are his bright eyes. "I'll see you tomorrow, Raymond."

"Yeah, tomorrow! See you," Ray calls out dully, but Leonard has already left the parking garage without a sound.

Gripping his back tightly and sighing softly to himself, Ray finally stumbles his way over to his car, his body feeling as if it's made of jell-o. He has to sit inside for several minutes before he can bring himself to actually start to car and drive off.

And if he can't stop smiling the entire drive home, well, that's really not anybody's business but his.

**Author's Note:**

> as always, you can find me on tumblr at [coldsatom](http://coldsatom.tumblr.com/)
> 
> i'm always open for prompts! 
> 
> send in your coldatom, coldwave, sterek (teen wolf) or zimbits (check, please!) prompts at any time and i'll tackle them as soon as possible!
> 
> alternatively, we can also cry over any of the above pairings together, just drop by my ask!


End file.
